table

Contents

1. What data is available for download?

2. Where can you download the data?

3. How do you register for access to the data?

4. Where can you find out more about the underpinning science

5. What are the restrictions on use?

6. What do you need to be aware of before using the data?

7. What data formats are available?

8. What spatial resolutions and regional averages are available?

9. What variables are available?

10. Where can you go for more information

Appendix A Data availability: Global projections CMIP-13

Appendix B Coordinate Systems, Regridding and Regional Averages

1. What data is available for download?

The UKCP18 data for the marine and land projections are available for download. The climate models

and scenarios available are summarised in Tables 1 and 2. You can find a list of the variables and

details of the regional averaging (e.g. over the UK, river basin and administrative regions) in Tables 4

and 5 below.

UKCP18 Guidance: Data availability, access and formats

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 2 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

Dataset Description Emissions

scenarios

Time

Period

Domain

Time mean sea

level at 12 km

Projections of future changes in sea water level RCP2.6

RCP4.5

RCP8.5

2007-

2100

UK

coastline

Storm surge

trend at 12km

Projections of storm surge trend around the UK

coastline

RCP8.5 2007-

2100

UK

coastline

Storm surge

simulations

Time series of gridded historical and future simulations

of sea water level

RCP8.5 1970-

2099

UK

Short event case

studies

Time series of gridded historical and future simulations

of sea water level for three events (6 Dec 2013, 3 Feb

2014, 11 Jan 2015)

N/A N/A

UK

Time mean sea

level at 12km

Exploratory projections of future changes in sea water

level around the UK coastline

RCP2.6

RCP4.5

RCP8.5

2007-

2300

UK

Table 1 Summary of UKCP18 marine projections data

Dataset Description Emissions

scenarios

Time

Period

Geographical

Domain

Probabilistic

projections

Probabilistic projections over land RCP2.6

RCP4.5

RCP6.0

RCP8.5

SRESA1B

1961-

2100

UK

Global (60km)

projections

Global climate model projections including 15 from

the Met Office Hadley Centre (PPE-15) and 13

models from other international climate modelling

centres (CMIP5-13)

RCP8.5

1900-

2100

Global

UK

Regional (12km)

projections

A set of 12 high resolution climate projections at

12km spatial resolution driven by the global climate

model projections

RCP8.5 1981-

2080

Europe

UK

Local (2.2km)

projections

A set of 12 high resolution climate projections at

2.2km spatial resolution driven by the regional

climate model projections

RCP8.5 1981-

2000

2021-

2040

2061-

2080

UK

Derived

projections

Projections for RCP2.6 and worlds with 2°C and

4°C warming produced using statistical methods

and based on the global climate model projections

RCP2.6

2°C world

4°C world

1900-

2100

UK

Table 2 Summary of UKCP18 climate models and scenarios for projections over land

2. Where can you download the data?

There are four locations where you can download the data:

UKCP Website. You can download a spreadsheet with the key results from the marine and

probabilistic projections.

UKCP User interface (UI). You can download datasets and plot graphs and maps for the UK

from the user interface. Beware that the UI provides easy access to frequently requested data for

the UK and some datasets are not available (e.g. the global dataset and storm surge case

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 3 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

studies). These can be downloaded using the methods below listed below. You need to register

to access the products and instructions are available at the UI.

CEDA Data Catalogue. All datasets set out in Tables 1, 2, 4 and 5 are available for download via

the CEDA data catalogue. You can click and download individual files or write a script to

download a set of files automatically (see the CEDA website for more details).

Application Programming Interface (API). You can develop web applications that call upon the

web-processing services underpinning the UI. Instructions on how to use the API are available at

the UKCP UI.

3. How do you register for access to the data?

For the UKCP User Interface, you can register at the Sign Up page. Enter your information in the fields

and click “submit”. The interface will send you an email with a link to activate your account. Please

check your spam/junk folder and you may need to move it to your inbox to allow it to activate your

account.

All data is provided under the Open Government Licence.

4. Where can you find out more about the underpinning science

The science underpinning the climate data is described in the following reports and sets of guidance

available from the UKCP website:

Peer-Reviewed science reports

o UKCP18 Science Overview

o UKCP18 Land Projections Science Report

o UKCP18 Marine Projections Report

o UKCP18 Derived Projections Report

o UKCP Convection Permitting Model Science Report

Peer Reviewed user guidance

o UKCP18 Factsheets on sea level and storm surge, temperature, precipitation, wind,

weather types

o UKCP18 Guidance: How to use the Land Projections

o UKCP18 Guidance: How to bias correct

o UKCP18 Guidance: Caveats and Limitations

Additional user guidance

o UKCP Factsheet: Local (2.2km) Projections

o UKCP18 Guidance: UKCP18 for UKCP09 Users

o UKCP18 Guidance: Representative Concentration Pathways

o UKCP18 Factsheet on snow

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 4 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

o UKCP18 Guidance on using different visualisation products such as plume plots, PDF

and CDF plots, probabilistic projections maps.

5. What are the restrictions on use?

The Open Government Licence (OGL) applies to all datasets.

6. What do you need to be aware of before using the data?

Before using the data, familiarise yourself with UKCP18 Guidance: Caveats and Limitations available

from the UKCP website.

Whilst the projections represent the latest scientific understanding and the results have been peer

reviewed by independent experts, keep in mind the caveats and limitations of the projections. Although

our understanding and ability to simulate the climate is advancing all the time, our models are not able to

represent all of the features seen in the present day real climate. This means that when applying the

climate projections to your decision-making, consider how best to factor the capabilities and limitations of

UKCP18. This should be informed by a thorough understanding of the consequences of different climate

outcomes – perhaps including those beyond the ranges of uncertainty presented in UKCP18.

7. What data formats are available?

The following table summarises the available file formats.

Product Formats Notes

CDF plot

Joint probability plot

Maps

PDF plot

Plume plot

png, jpg, pdf

resolutions of 900x600,

1200x800, 2400x1600

Raw data CSV This can be used in EXCEL or any

text file reader.

You can also import it into ArcGIS if

you replace the metadata at the top of

the file such that it resembles ESRI

ASCII raster format1

NetCDF This is for users familiar with

programming and details can be

found at

www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf

Table 3 Summary of UKCP18 file formats

1http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/ESRI_ASCII_raster_format/009t0000000z000000/

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 5 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

8. What spatial resolutions and regional averages are available?

Spatial resolutions and coordinate systems

The data is available in more than one spatial coordinate system. All projections over land for the UK are

available in the Ordnance Survey’s National Grid. See Table 4 for a summary of the spatial coordinate

systems used for each dataset.

The raw model data from the projections over land are in a number of different coordinate systems. We

have opted to make the data available in British National Grid for the UK for all land projections to ease

analysis for most UK users. It is also consistent with the coordinate system used by the Met Office’s

National Climate Information Centre who provide observed datasets. This required regridding the original

climate model data and the details of the method and coordinate systems can be found in Appendix B.

Users in Northern Ireland may need to carry out their own regridding if the Irish Grid is required.

Dataset Spatial

resolution

Domain Spatial coordinate system Regional averages

available

Probabilistic

projections

25km UK

Channel Islands

Isle of Man

British National Grid (OSGB) Country

Administrative Regions

River basin regions

Global (60km)

projections

60km Global Regular latitude-longitude in

geographic projection

Country

Administrative Regions

River basin regions 60km UK only

Channel Islands

Isle of Man

British National Grid (OSGB)

Regional (12km)

projections

12km

Europe Latitude-longitude in rotated

pole coordinates

Country

Administrative Regions

River basin regions UK

Channel Islands

Isle of Man

British National Grid (OSGB)

Local (2.2km)

projections

2.2km UK

Isle of Man

Latitude-longitude in rotated

pole coordinates

Country

Administrative Regions

River basin regions 5km British National Grid (OSGB)

Marine projections 12km UK

Channel Islands

Isle of Man

Regular latitude-longitude in

geographic projection

None

Table 4 Summary of geographical characteristics of UKCP18 data

The marine projections are provided as grid cells along the UK coastline (for sea level and extreme

water levels) and for UK sea waters (storm surge runs and short event case studies) using a regular

latitude-longitude geographic projection.

Regional Averages

The data will be available for three types of aggregated areas country regions (see Figure 1),

administrative regions (see Figure 2) and River basin regions (see Figure 3). The regional averages for

all aggregated areas have been calculated using 2-D conservative method. See Appendix B for details.

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 6 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

To make it easier to share and use the shapefiles, we have created the administration and river basin

region as well as country shapefiles from open-source datasets. The shapefiles are available with an

Open Government Licence. Note that there are some differences between UKCP09 and UKCP18

administration region shapefiles. These are in Scotland where Eastern, Western and Northern Scotland

are based on aggregating regions from OS Boundary Line. There are also some small changes to river

basins which are based on the European Environment Agency’s European river catchments.

UKCP Local (2.2km) provides the most spatially detailed picture of future climate for the mainland UK.

However, due to the proximity of the Shetland Isles to the northern boundary of the model domain used

for these projections, data produced here is not reliable and should not be used. This is because at the

edge of the model domain the projections are influenced by the techniques required to drive the model at

its boundaries, which prevent Local (2.2km) from developing its own climatology over Shetland. We do

not include these grid cells to calculate the regional average.

UKCP Local (2.2km) is just one of the tools available in the UKCP suite that provide national climate

change information. We advise using the alternate tools to access future climate data over the Shetland

Islands. For example, the Regional (12km) projections use a much larger European model domain which

places the northern boundaries much further north. Shetland is represented at a 12km resolution and is

free from any boundary issues.

The shapefiles are available at https://github.com/ukcp-data/ukcp-spatial-files.

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 7 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

Figure 1 Map of countries used in UKCP18. The two regions covering United Kingdom as well as England and Wales are available too

WalesEngland

Scotland

Isle of Man

Channel Islands

Northern Ireland

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 8 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

Figure 2 Map of administrative regions used in UKCP18

Wales

London

Isle of Man

West Midlands

East Midlands

West Scotland

East Scotland

North Scotland

Channel Islands

East of England

Northern Ireland

South West England

North West England

North East England

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 9 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

Figure 3 Map of river basin regions used in UKCP18

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 10 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

9. What variables are available?

Variable at the surface

(short name in CEDA

catalogue)

Units Marine Probabilistic †Global

(60km)

Regional

(12km)

Local

(2.2km) Derived

Cloud cover (clt) % ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Precipitation (pr) mm/day ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ hourly ✓+

Radiation, total

downward short wave

flux (rsds)

Wm-2 ✓

Radiation, net long

wave (rls)

Wm-2 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Radiation, net short

wave (rss)

Wm-2 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Relative humidity

(hurs)

% ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Sea level pressure (psl) hPa ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Sea water level m ✓

Snow: snowfall amount

(prsn)

mm ✓ ✓

Snow: lying snow

amount (snw)

mm ✓ ✓

Specific humidity

(huss)

✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Temperature, maximum

(tasmax)

°C ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Temperature, Mean

(tas)

°C ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ hourly ✓+

Temperature, minimum

(tasmin)

°C ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Wind gusts

(wsgmax10m)

m/s ✓ 3-hourly

Wind speed (sfcWind) m/s ✓ ✓ ✓ 3-hourly ✓

Wind speed eastwards

(uas)

m/s ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Wind speed northwards

(vas)

m/s ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Time steps Dataset-

dependent

Monthly

Seasonal

Annual

20/30-year means

Daily

Monthly

Seasonal*

Annual*

20/30-year means*

Daily+

Monthly

Table 5 Available UKCP18 variables for the marine and projections over land. Further variables and metrics such as sea

surface temperatures, extreme metrics for precipitation and temperature, weather types are being considered for release. Note

that all daily variables are provided on a 360-day year. *these are available over the UK only +only daily precipitation and

temperature are available for the derived projections †Not all variables are available for CMIP-13 (see Appendix A).

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 11 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

10. Where can you go for more information

If you want to find out more about the UKCP18 project visit the UKCP website.

If you have enquiries about the data licence conditions and have feedback for the UKCP18 User

Interface or CEDA Data Catalogue please contact us through the online support form on the UKCP

website.

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 12 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

Appendix A Data availability: Global projections CMIP-13

The UKCP18 global projections also include information from climate modelling centres other than the

Met Office Hadley Centre. The availability of climate variables from these models are dependent on

whether the climate modelling centres saved the data. Table A.1 sets out the daily variables that are

missing for the CMIP-13 set of global projections. Table A.2 sets out the monthly variables that are

missing for the CMIP-13 set of global projections.

CMIP5-13 member ID

CMIP5 name

clt

hu

rs

hu

ss

pr

ps

l

rls

rss

sfc

Win

d

tas

tas

min

tas

ma

x

ua

s

va

s

16 bcc-csm1-1 1950 × × 1950

17 CCSM4 × × × × × ×

18 CESM1-BGC × × × × ×

19 CanESM2 ×

20 CMCC-CM 1950 × × 1950 1950

21 CNRM-CM5 1950 × 1950 1950

22 EC-EARTH × × × × 1900 × ×

23 ACCESS1-3 1950 × 1950 1950

24 HadGEM2-ES 1949 × 1949 1949

25 IPSL-CM5A-MR ×

26 MPI-ESM-MR 1950 × × 1950 1950

27 MRI-CGCM3 1950 × 1950 1950

28 GFDL-ESM2G ×

Table A.1. Summary of daily fields that are missing (x) for the CMIP5-13 in the Global Projections, or that do not

have data for the whole period 1/12/1899 to 30/11/2099 (these are shown by the first year for which there is data).

clt is total cloud cover, hurs is relative humidity at the surface, huss is specific humidity at the surface, psl is sea

level pressure, rls is the long wave radiation at the surface, rss is the short wave radiation at the surface, sfcWind is

wind speed at 10m, tas is mean temperature at the surface, tasmin is minimum temperature at the surface, tasmax

is maximum temperature at the surface, uas is horizontal wind at the surface and vas is vertical wind at the surface.

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 13 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

CMIP5-13 member ID

CMIP5 name

clt

hu

rs

hu

ss

pr

ps

l

rls

rss

sfc

Win

d

tas

tas

min

tas

ma

x

ua

s

va

s

16 bcc-csm1-1 × × ×

17 CCSM4 × × × × ×

18 CESM1-BGC × × × × ×

19 CanESM2 × ×

20 CMCC-CM × × × ×

21 CNRM-CM5 × × × ×

22 EC-EARTH × × × × × × × × ×

23 ACCESS1-3 × ×

24 HadGEM2-ES × ×

25 IPSL-CM5A-MR × × ×

26 MPI-ESM-MR × × × ×

27 MRI-CGCM3 × × × × ×

28 GFDL-ESM2G × ×

Table A.2. Summary of monthly fields that are missing (x) for the CMIP5-13 in the Global Projections, or that do not

have data for the whole period 1/12/1899 to 30/11/2099 (these are shown by the first year for which there is data).

clt is total cloud cover, hurs is relative humidity at the surface, huss is specific humidity at the surface, psl is sea

level pressure, rls is the long wave radiation at the surface, rss is the short wave radiation at the surface, sfcWind is

wind speed at 10m, tas is mean temperature at the surface, tasmin is minimum temperature at the surface, tasmax

is maximum temperature at the surface, uas is horizontal wind at the surface and vas is vertical wind at the surface.

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 14 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

Appendix B Coordinate Systems, Regridding and Regional Averages

Coordinate Systems

As listed in Table 4, the climate projections are available in different coordinate systems and resolutions.

The following are definitions of the different coordinate systems used in UKCP18 raw model data:

Global Projections and Marine Projections

The global and marine projections raw model data are provided on the geographic projection.

Regional Projections

The regional climate model projections for the European domain are available in a rotated pole

coordinate system. The details are as follows:

Rotated Pole

Grid North Pole latitude = 39.25

Grid North Pole longitude = 198.0

Regional Averages and Regridding

The processing tools used to provide the climate model data over land were developed in Python 2.7

and Iris. The probabilistic, global and regional projections are available regridded to the UK on the

Ordnance Survey’s National Grid as well as averaged regionally for countries, administrative regions and

river basin regions. The same method was used for both regridding and regional averaging; this requires

using shapefiles for the target National Grid or region and then carrying out an area-weighted method

using iris.analysis.geometry.

Note that there are no values for some of the small land areas for the global projections due to the

coarser model grid resolution.

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 15 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

Appendix C: Filename and Folder Structure Conventions

The UKCP data files for the projections over land have been stored on the CEDA Data Archive using the

conventions set out in TablesC.1, C.2 and C.3.

Dataset Folder structure

Probabilistic collection/domain/resolution/scenario/filetype/baseline/nyear/variable/frequency/version

Global (60km), Regional (12km), Local (2.2km), Derived

collection/domain/resolution/scenario/member/variable/frequency/version/

Table C.1 Folder structure convention for files on CEDA Data Archive

Dataset Filename convention

Probabilistic variable_scenario_collection_domain_resolution_filetype_baseline_nyear_frequency_timeslice.nc

Global (60km), Regional (12km), Local (2.2km), Derived

variable_scenario_collection_domain_resolution_member_frequency_timeslice.nc

Table C.2 Filename convention for files on CEDA Data Archive

Category Category description Values available Value descriptions

collection Describes the data collection

land-prob land-gcm land-rcm land-cpm

Probabilistic projections Global (60km) projections Regional (12km) projections Local (2.2km) projections

domain The spatial extent of the data

global eur uk

Global Europe UK only

resolution The resolution of the dataset

60km, 12km, 2.2km

Resolution of the climate model

60km, 12km , 5km, country, region, river

Resolution of the regridded data and regional averages

scenario Representative concentration pathway or emissions scenario

rcp2.6, rcp4.5, rcp6.0,rcp8.5, sreas-a1b

filetype The type of result cdf pdf sample

Cumulative-distribution frequency Probability distribution function Samples

baseline Baseline years used for calculating anomalies

b8100,b6190,b8110 1981-2000,1961-1990, 1981-2010

nyear Number of years used for calculating anomalies

1y, 20y, 30y

member Member number see Table D.1

variable Variable short name see Table 5

frequency Averaging frequency 1hr, 3hr, day, mon, seas, ann

1 hour, 3 hour, daily, monthly, seasonal, annual

mon-20y, seas-20y, ann-20y

20-year monthly, seasonal and annual averages

mon-20y, seas-20y, ann-20y

30-year monthly, seasonal and annual averages

version Version number

Table C.1 Description of folder and filename conventions used in CEDA Data Archive

www.metoffice.gov.uk Pg 16 of 16 Source: Met Office © Crown Copyright 2019

Appendix D: Climate model name and conventions for Global (60km), Regional (12km),

Local (2.2km) and Derived Projections

The Global (60km) projections comprise results from the Met Office Hadley Centre global climate model

(HadGEM3-GC3.05) as well as climate models (CMIP5) used in the latest assessment report from the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Table D.1 shows the naming convention that was used in

the filenames and metadata stored on the CEDA Data Archive.

Climate Model

Global Climate Model name

Member ID

Perturbed-Physics ID

Regional Climate Model name

Convection-Permitting Model

name

Met Office Hadley Centre climate model

HadGEM3-GC3.05

01 r001i1p00000 HadREM3-GA705 HadREM3-RA11M

02

03

04 r001i1p01113 HadREM3-GA705 HadREM3-RA11M

05 r001i1p01554 HadREM3-GA705 HadREM3-RA11M

06 r001i1p01649 HadREM3-GA705 HadREM3-RA11M

07 r001i1p01843 HadREM3-GA705 HadREM3-RA11M

08 r001i1p01935 HadREM3-GA705 HadREM3-RA11M

09 r001i1p02123 HadREM3-GA705 HadREM3-RA11M

10 r001i1p02242 HadREM3-GA705 HadREM3-RA11M

11 r001i1p02305 HadREM3-GA705 HadREM3-RA11M

12 r001i1p02335 HadREM3-GA705 HadREM3-RA11M

13 r001i1p02491 HadREM3-GA705 HadREM3-RA11M

14

15 r001i1p02868 HadREM3-GA705 HadREM3-RA11M

CMIP5 Climate Models

bcc-csm1-1 16

CCSM4 17

CESM1-BGC 18

CanESM2 19

CMCC-CM 20

CNRM-CM5 21

EC-EARTH 22

ACCESS1-3 23

HadGEM2-ES 24

IPSL-CM5A-MR 25

MPI-ESM-MR 26

MRI-CGCM3 27

GFDL-ESM2G 28

Table D.1 Climate models used in the Global (60km), Regional (12km), Local (2.2km) and Derived

Projections. Table includes climate model names, corresponding identifier (member ID) and the

perturbed-physics ID (for Met Office Hadley Centre models) used in the filename convention in the

CEDA Archive. Only Met Office Hadley Centre (MOHC) regional and convection-permitting climate

models were used. The MOHC global climate models were used as input to the 12 regional climate

models. The 12 regional climate models were used as input to the 12 convection-permitting models.

Further details of the HadGEM3-GC3.05 perturbed physics data is available at Sexton et al (2019)2.

2 Sexton et al (2019), The elicitation of distributions of parameters in HadGEM3 versions GA4 and GA7 for use in perturbed parameter ensembles, Technical Note 101, Met Office. Available at: https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/digitalFile_70d009c8-e04e-449b-98a2-ada3be97167d